


It's All An Illusion

by Pluppelina



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Arkham Asylum (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, arkham city, cellmates, some disturbing themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-24
Updated: 2013-01-24
Packaged: 2017-11-26 18:31:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/653176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pluppelina/pseuds/Pluppelina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story of Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and a developing relationship, told through the point of view of nobody at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's All An Illusion

They are mostly silent. No introductions were ever needed, and quiet is the way they like it, anyway. The screams that echoes from cells of others are always enough to keep them entertained and the occasional chuckle from the other’s bed is enough for them to form a kind of companionship.

They spend a few weeks passing the time in this manner, and the silence never once gets bothersome. Then, the Joker tries to escape. The guards dislike all the inmates but none more than the Joker, and the sounds he makes as they beat him back down – it’s glorious. Glorious enough that for a moment, they are both laughing quietly on their cots, and in a reckless moment, their eyes meet. It only lasts for a moment, but enough of a moment to let them both know that they are, essentially, the same. The realization starts something.

“Crane?” Edward says, three days later. It feels strange to actually exchange words and names in that manner, but then again, it had always just been a matter of time.

“Nigma.”

“I, quite to my surprise, find you to be rather… Tolerable.”

“Likewise.”

And from there, their friendship starts to grow.

It’s easy for the board to look at them as one, as they were incarcerated at roughly the same time for roughly the same crimes, and so they start to get a few privileges at the same time as well. One of those privileges is unguarded access to the library for half an hour every day, and this half an hour they spend playing chess with one another – at least at first. After a few games, it isn't as obvious that it’s chess they’re playing any longer, as they seem to be following another set of rules completely. Not that either of them minds; it’s much more mentally stimulating when it isn't so predictable.

Inevitably, this leads to conversing. They realize that they share the same kind of morbid humor and the same proclivity for what might best be described as violent mental sparring that more than once crosses the line over into something bigger, like that memorable Sunday they start discussing fashion and Edward accuses Jonathan of wearing his suit for fetish purposes, in response to which Jonathan implies that Edward is gay. That sends the conversation a new way completely, taking a turn towards homosexuality and the various prejudices regarding it, which via “Oh, I’ll show you how effeminate gay is” leads to just-as-brutal kissing. Both of them believe that they manipulated the other into this course of action, and both of them believe that the other thinks it was nothing but a way to settle the argument – an argument that was hardly needed as they both knew the point proven from the very beginning.

From there on, their conversations start to look more like their chess games.

There isn't any more brutal kissing for a while, but there are indeed traps and challenges and interpretations and they poke and probe each other’s minds, and it keeps them both entertained. When the Joker pulls off his takeover of the asylum, they also discover that they work quite well together, despite their very different MO’s. They both manage to escape the Batman at that point – separately, and with no way at all of contacting each other, especially after the Riddler is apprehended only days after the Scarecrow’s escape.

It is during that time that they both start to realize just how used one could get to another’s company. They haven’t spent any more than a few months together, yet it feels odd and vaguely distracting to be without the other. They are alone again, and alone had always been how they had liked it, but not so any more. It’s slightly disturbing and they both decide to ignore the aggressive sound of silence. After all, there is nothing to be done about it. 

Then, there is Arkham City. Arkham City changes things, because Arkham City is a fucking war zone. They find each other with ease but they have been away from one another for so long that, aside from the flashbacks to another kind of concentration camp in another kind of war, they have utterly lost all words to say to one another again. It doesn't matter; silence was always their friend and they don’t need words. In a war zone, all rules are off.

Sleeping naked together under shared blankets and sweaters is a strictly pragmatic decision; using the last of the gun oil for lubricant isn't. Jonathan keeps analyzing their situation and Edward keeps questioning it and they both reach the same conclusion; they might not have any food, or any warmth, or any home, but they are not going to lose each other as well. With the constant threat of death hanging over their heads, it just makes more sense for them to live as much as they are able to while they still can.

The great tragedy of living life as if one might die at any given moment is however often that there is a great risk one might not actually pass away, and neither of them do. When spring comes and the walls fall and they’re shipped back to the asylum again, it is as if the sunlight is mocking them and all of their actions. The memories seem so bizarre; was that really them, plotting the best way to catch a man to eat? Using a bucket in a corner as a toilet? Lighting a fire indoors, going directly against both of their good judgements, because they were freezing to death? Burning calories they didn't have by fucking in a run-down building until one of them passed out, and then some more? In the glittering May sun, it simply doesn't feel real.

That could have been the end, so very easily. They are both men of pride when they can afford to be and this period of their lives, while not much darker than others, is not very dignified. It would be so easy to forget any of it ever happened, so easy to bury it along with childhood bullies and drunken fathers, but on the other hand… On the other hand, someone that loyal and something this real comes along once in a life time, and even though they still don’t have a thing to say to each other, sharing a silent cell is going to feel even more like home this time around.


End file.
